Although Russians do not celebrate Christmas on the 25th of December like most Western countries, many of their New Year’s customs are parallels of our Christmas customs. For example, they put up New Year trees, send New Year cards, and so on. Today, we share a number of New Year cards from the Soviet era.
From Fresher.ru:
Old Soviet New Year cards
Festive Soviet-designed images bring back happy memories from our childhood. Many even today probably still keep their old Soviet New Year’s cards. Do you remember?
It’s difficult to imagine now, but there was a time during the Soviet times, when New Year and everything related to it were banned – the Christmas tree, postcards, parties. In the autumn of 1929, New Year and Christmas were announced to be normal working days, and any celebration of “customs of priests” was forbidden. The winter festivals were called “bourgeois”. In December and January, special patrols of volunteers walked around the streets peeking into windows checking that the government orders were being carried out. The New Year tree became illegal and secretive. Those that didn’t want to deprive their children of the celebrations had to do so secretly.
The situation changed in 1935. The Ukrainian secretary of the Communist Bolshevik Party at the time, Pavel Postyshev was able to convince Stalin that the beautiful New Year tree could be completely changed from the “priests’ tree” into a symbol of children’s happiness in the USSR. The New Year of 1936 was welcomed in by the whole country around a New Year tree with homemade cards. The celebration of the New Year became an integral part of Soviet life.
Comments from Fresher.ru:
TIPA:
Ah, youth!
Тутошный:
I’d say childhood
passerby:
Mmm yeah… a time when the trees were huge, grass was green as green can be, and new year was New Year! And hares, hedgehogs, bears and Father Christmas were real.
passerby:
Ooh and I nearly forgot (((…
Happy New Year friends!
tyrist:
New Year was warmer and more heartfelt at the time, and people were kinder.
Ирина:
It seems like I remember all of them. Thank you.
ятотоком:
Nostalgic
ex.masta:
Beautiful! I’ve seen almost all of them, and I’ve probably got a third of them in the cupboard with wishes [from friends]…
Happy New Year everyone! :)
kafa:
Compared to today’s cards, there’s clearly a difference. The old cards are much nicer and prettier than their new counterparts.